The Rangers crisis story that the Sun really had to flee from
Anyone who has ever been an editor in Glasgow knows the phenomenal pulling power of Rangers and the tightrope you walk in not upsetting the fan base.
Rangers: fan power
Their loyally is fierce: the massive crowds of up to 46,000 turning up for Third Division games recently is testimony to that. Eat your heart out , Premier League.
If you have a good Rangers story on Page 1, the paper will simply walk off the counters.
When I was editor of the Sunday Mail I was offered a well checked-out but "ridiculous " story of Mo Johnson , a Catholic, signing for Rangers. It was absolutely true of course but "them upstairs" checked it out with David Murray and informed me that it wasn't so.
The story went to The Sun who piled on tens of thousands in extra sales.
There's no doubt that the story the Scottish Sun planned to serialise this week fits right into that surefire seller category .
Everyone wants to read what was going on behind the scenes as the old Ibrox set-up hurtled to destruction .
But in their rush to publish , the Sun made a dreadful mistake. They had not thoroughly checked out the author's past writings.
If they had done that, they would have come across a horrendous blog back in April said to be a satire on the bigotry of Rangers fans by the book's author: Phil Mac Giolla Bhain .
Having seen that, I would like to think editor Andy Harries would have pulled the story without a single call from Rangers fans. Liverpool fans have never forgiven the Sun for pillorying its supporters after the Hillsborough disaster . And the Sun could not be seen to be giving Bhain money!
But of course, the switchboard was flooded. The story had to be ditched.
As I write, other editors will be dithering over what they can print once the book goes on sale. The story deserves to be told . I missed out on Mo all these years ago. What would I do now? Get an eminent lawyer to review the Bhain book - taking note of the author's background.